Project Excalibur
by Hunter247
Summary: When the world has run out of options for protection, Nick Fury has no choice but to re-open an abandoned SHIELD project from the '80's. Calling upon FBI Agent Fred Duncan and SHIELD Agent Douglas Ramsey, they must put together a new team in order to stop someone from changing the course of humanity forever.
1. Prolouge

Nick Fury had a bad week. First he had to deal with an imaginary elemental monster attacking London, and now there were reports of a vampire prowling around New York. The world had started to get more unruly with each passing month. He had begun to run out options; The Avengers were dismantled, Captain Marvel was off-world, Spider-Man was in hiding, and he didn't even want to begin to imagine where the hell Doctor Strange was. Fury was left with no choice. He had to re-open it.

Fury began looking through his files on anything related to an abandoned SHIELD project from the '80's entitled "Project Excalibur" and pulled them up. The files included head shots of various individuals,all marked "Gifted"; blueprints from a experimental tracking system, and a digitized letter from a man in upstate New York who claimed to have telepathy. Fury copied all of the files onto a flash drive and pocketed it.

As he finished, Fury called Maria Hill into his office to discuss important matters dealing with the project.

"You called me, sir?" Hill said as she stepped into Fury's office.

"I did. Tell me, Hill, have ever heard of Project Excalibur?"

"Only in passing, why?"

Fury sat up in his chair and looked at Hill in intense eyes. " The world has become unsafe, Hill. Ever since Thanos, entire countries live in fear that they may never see the light of day."

" Sir, many world governments have trying to rectify that situation, and some have been successful in forming their teams of heroes." Hill then saw sorrow in Fury's face, and she knew that this answer was not the one he had wanted.

" Yes, some governments have made suitable replacements for the Avengers, but how long do you think those will last? How long until another Thanos or Ultron appears? What will the world do then?"

Hill thought about this for what seemed like an eternity. "What do you suggest we do?" she asked.

"I want to re-open Project Excalibur."

"How will that help?" Hill sounded concerned. "I thought Excalibur was just a surveillance project."

"There was a lot more to Excalibur than just surveillance, Hill."

"Then, what exactly was it's purpose?"

"To seek out and find individuals extraordinary talents and help integrate with society, and when we needed them, they were recruited to SHIELD. It was similar to the Avengers Initiative, but was shut down in the '80's due to the government directing it's efforts to the cold war."

Fury then took out the flash drive from his pocket and handed it to Hill. "Everything you need to know is on this. Don't let it fall into the wrong hands."

Hill looked at the flash drive for a moment, sighed, and the looked at Fury. " Are you sure you want to do this, sir?"

"What other choice do we have?"

Hill stood to leave and started walking towards the door leading out of Fury's office. As she placed her hand on the door handle, Fury spoke up.

"And Hill?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Contact Agent Douglas Ramsey, I need to speak with about a few things tomorrow morning."

"Very well, sir."

And as Hill walked out of his office, Fury felt as if something in the back of his head was telling him this was the right choice.

_'Well done, Nicholas. Well done'_


	2. A Call To Action

Chapter 1

Douglas Ramsey awoke to the blaring sound of his phone's alarm clock. He tried silencing it, but the phone was on lock-down until he was fully awake. '_Fucking Stark tech.'_ he thought. As he got up from bed and looked towards his New York apartment window, he turned on the TV and started his day.

The news wasn't much better than it was the day before, with newscasters reporting on the ongoing bloodshed in lower Manhattan, which he thought the vampire story the news had excepted was a load of Daily Bugle bullshit. Ever since Jameson outed Spider-Man as a killer, he never trusted the news anymore. Who in the hell was gong to believe that a teenager was swinging around New York in red and blue spandex? Apparently everyone, since no none questioned the validity of Mysterio's video, or even where the video came from.

As he made his way over to his kitchen to make his daily cup of coffee, Douglas noticed a package on his table address to him from Nick Fury. 'Fury? What does he want?'

Ramsey quickly made his coffee and proceeded to look through the package's contents. What he found was a simple flash drive containing files for something called "Project Excalibur" along with a note written by Fury:

Grand Central Station

9:45 AM

Come Alone.

'Damn it, Fury.' He sighed and quietly sipped his coffee.

* * *

On his way towards Grand Central, Douglas couldn't help but notice that the streets eerily quiet, even this early in the morning, the streets would normally be drowned by the sounds car horns, people shouting and yelling at each other, dogs barking, etc., but today, nothing. He soon found a man walking on the opposite of the street and quickly rushed over them.

"Hey, do you know where everybody is?" Douglas asked the man.

"They're in mourning. It seems we're losing more heroes every day."

"Yeah, I heard." Douglas looked solemnly at the man, as if to say 'Sorry.' Douglas knew he wasn't though, as he thought Mysterio was nothing more than a con man. They nodded at each other and continued on their ways.

Grand Central looked as though it had abandoned for years before Ramsey. The stations had no people catching trains, and no sounds on engines were leaving the building. Douglas' footsteps echoed along the barren and empty terminal, save from for one person.

"Fury, you know damn well that I resigned years ago."

"And yet, here you are. If you were really done with SHIELD, Ramsey, you would've left that package on your counter and gone on with your life. But you didn't, did you?"

"Why am I here, Nick?"

"You know why, or else you wouldn't have come."

"Excalibur was shut down 40 years ago, why reactivate it now?"

"The events in London and Manhattan have made me realize that without the Avengers, the world is vulnerable to attack, have it be from within our own ranks or some extra-dimensional space god. I felt it was time."

"The Force was a failed idea. It was a group of people who didn't play well with each other and it nearly destroyed the world. SHIELD shut it down for a reason, and then you had to try the same stunt again 20 years later, and now look that's gotten us!"

Fury looked at Ramsey for a while before finally saying something in response. " The Avenger Initiative was a success and if we-" Fury was cut off by Douglas.

" A success!? Your little super secret boy band nearly destroy the city and you call that a success!? And let's not forget that the so-called 'leader' created a homicide AI who almost dropped an entire capital out of the sky! An outsider, a HYDRA agent no less, managed to tear that team apart from the inside when the world needed them most. But what has to be possibly your biggest failure with the team was when an evil alien warmonger managed to wipe out half of the entire universe whilst taking all of the Avengers head on and the only, the ONLY, way to defeat him was time travel, which almost didn't success. No matter how many times you try Excalibur, no matter how many time you rename it, Excalibur will NEVER work. It didn't work for me and it didn't work for you, so what makes you think it will work a third time?"

"Because this time, you have me." A man in a black suit came out of one of the terminals and started towards the pair.

"Who the hell are you?" Douglas asked the man.

"Douglas Ramsey, meet Agent Fred Duncan. He will be assisting you on Excalibur." Fury introduced the two to each and began to walk away.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ramsey asked.

"Who, me?" Fury replied. "I gotta go find a vampire in New York. And I expect to see you both in my office first thing tomorrow morning. Got it?"

" Yes, sir." Duncan and Ramsey answered together. Douglas sounded less amused then Fred.

" So, where to first?" asked Duncan. Douglas only glared at him as he started walking away.

* * *

That night, Douglas sat in his apartment thinking back on the day's events.

"What the fuck have I gotten myself into?" he said to himself.

He turned on the TV to try and clear his mind on the matter. CNN were just about to premiere a documentary on the life and legacy of Tony Stark. Douglas was relieved. He missed Stark, and even though he didn't know him personally, Douglas felt that Tony had spoken to and inspired an entire generation of people. But just as Douglas was starting to get himself comfortable, there was a knock at the door. Douglas got up and walked over to look through the peephole. It was Duncan.

"What do you want?" Douglas asked through the door.

"Let me in and we'll talk." Duncan replied, feeling a bit out of place in the high-end New York apartment complex.

Douglas begrudgingly opened the door and let Duncan in.

"Nice place." Duncan said, looking for a reaction from Duncan.

"Hmm." This was all the conversation Douglas could muster.

Duncan looked around while searching for a place to sit down when he noticed the TV. "Heart of Iron? Love that documentary."

"Why are you here, Duncan?" Douglas asked.

"Look. I know you don't want me as a partner, but Fury assigned me to Project Excalibur, so you're going to have to live with me for now. And as your partner, I think it would be beneficial for us if you told me what exactly is going on."

"Fine. What do you want to know?" Douglas said reluctantly.

"What exactly is Project Excalibur?"

"Fury never told you?"

"No. He said it was best for me if I learned about it as I went along."

Douglas didn't answer. He searched his thoughts for the reason Fury had decided not to tell Duncan about Excalibur. And then he remembered something about the project that had haunted his dreams for years since.

"Hello?" Duncan asked, waiting for an answer.

"I'll see in the morning."

"Wait , you still haven't told me about Project Excalibur."

"Look, we talk about it in the morning with Fury. Now Goodnight."

Douglas quickly ushered Duncan out of his apartment and shut the door behind him. Douglas then made his way to his bedroom, turning the TV off as he passed it. He got to hid bed and let himself fall into the sheets. 'Fury, what have you done?' These were his last thoughts before drifting off to sleep.


	3. The Meeting

As Fury sat at his desk, he looked upon the two men sat across from him.

"I understand that you two have had some tensions forming over the last few days, am I right?" Fury asked the two men.

" Yes, sir. But as you may know, I usually work alone and having a new partner all of a sudden does not sit well with me." Douglas Ramsey replied.

"Well, tough luck, Ramsey, because you're going to have to get used to it, not to mention, starting today, you and Duncan will be on the road a a lot for the next few months, so either you two settle your differences here and now, or else. Got it?"

"Yes, sir." Douglas and Fred Duncan replied at the same time.

"And, sir?" Duncan asked

"Yes, Duncan?"

"Why is it will we be on the road?"

"It's a very important matter dealing with Project Excalibur. I imagine Ramsey has told you everything you need to know about the case?"

"Sir, that may be we need to discuss after the meeting." Douglas said, worried about his imagined consequences.

"Why is that, Ramsey?"

"I just assumed that you had already told Duncan about Excalibur, so I didn't repeat you, sir."

"What Duncan doesn't know is for his own good. So, while you're on the road fill Duncan in on only the basics and nothing more. Do I make myself clear Ramsey?"

"Yes, sir." Douglas replied, gulping back fear.

"You two are dismissed."

As Douglas and Duncan got up to leave, Douglas held himself back, and turned to face Fury. But, at the same time Duncan looked at Douglas with worry.

"I'll meet you out at the car." Douglas said, hoping to calm Duncan's nerves. Duncan nodded and headed out.

"Douglas, I said you were dismissed."

"Why did you reopen it?"

"I already told you why."

"No, you gave me some bullshit story on how the world has become vulnerable after the Avengers disbanded."

"It has become vulnerable."

"I understand that, but that doesn't make up for the fact that reopened possibly one of the most dangerous projects in SHIELD history."

"There were no more teams we could rely on. Reopening Excalibur was my only choice."

"Bullshit. There are plenty of more recruits out there."

"Like who?"

"Just the other night on the news, I heard a story about a man in Harlem with bulletproof skin." Fury looked at Douglas, unimpressed. "There's a blind attorney in Hell's Kitchen who fights crime at night. Hell, there's even a kid with glowing fist." Fury was still unmoved.

"Give me one good reason to shut down Project Excalibur."

"Look, Fury, there was a reason SHIELD shut it down it the first place."

"And why was that?"

Douglas sighed and took a seat across from Fury. He took a deep breath and began.

"Back in '85, myself and a group of various other scientists were doing research into human genetic mutation and what we found was astonishing." Fury leaned into Douglas, as if wanting to hear more. Douglas continued. "Inside every is an evolutionary trait known as the 'X Gene', which allows certain humans who have an active version of the gene to perform incredible feats. It was my task to track down thee individuals, which we referred to as 'The Gifted', and I found one female by the name of Clarice Ferguson who could create portals to other dimensions. One day, as we were doing testing of her abilities, she opened a portal to somewhere, but I don't know where. It was then something came out."

Fury was now intrigued by Douglas' story.

"All I remember is a bright light being emitted by some sort of creature, but as soon as my vision was beginning to adjust to the light, I, along with almost every other researcher blacked out."

"Almost every one of you?" Fury asked.

"When we came to, I was the first one to notice that one of my fellow colleagues, Jean Grey, was missing. And as far as I know, she has never resurfaced."

Fury looked at Douglas with a face somewhere between regret and sympathy. "That will be all Agent Ramsey. You are dismissed."

"Yes, sir." As Douglas began walking towards the door, Fury pulled out a file and handed it to Douglas.

"What's this?" Douglas asked.

"Your first assignment. I expect to see you next week with the recruit."

Thank you, sir." And with that, Douglas exited the office.

* * *

As Douglas exited SHIELD HQ, he saw Duncan leaning against the car, sipping a coffee.

"When did you have time to get a coffee?"

"You were in there for ages, I had to something to pass the time."

"Well, did you at least get me one?"

"You didn't say you wanted one."

"You didn't ask!" Douglas retorted.

"Touche." Duncan continued to sip his coffee. " By the way, what's that?"

"Our first assignment."

"So, where to?" Duncan asked as he buckled his seat belt.

"New Orleans. We're supposed to track down some guy whose good with card tricks. Guy name's Remy Lebeau."

"Road trip!" Duncan yelled with some enthusiasm.

"Please shut up." Douglas retorted as he pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards Louisiana.


End file.
